1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information storage and display systems utilizing rotating storage drives, and more particularly, to video recording systems that record streaming video data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video recording systems, such as personal video recorders, typically utilize hard disk drive technology to store and replay video images. Such hard disk drive technology has traditionally been used in computer-related applications. By coupling the large, yet finite, storage capability (e.g., 15 GB or more) and non-volatile memory of an internal hard disk drive, and video compression and decompression capabilities, personal video recorders allow users to pause and resume live television or to observe instant-replay while continuing to record the same incoming video data stream. These capabilities are not provided by video cassette recorders that utilize magnetic tape storage, which is a sequential access medium (i.e., to jump from a particular stored video data stream to another, the tape must be advanced or rewound).
The storage space available for storing streaming video data in a personal video recorder is limited to the storage capacity of the internal hard disk drive within the personal video recorder itself. As such, once the storage capacity of the internal hard drive is completely filled with data, further video data storage requires rewriting over previously stored video data. Users can then only store an incoming video data stream at the cost of removing a previously stored video data stream.
There is, therefore, a need to provide the capabilities of video recording systems, while also providing the flexibility of adding storage capacity for video data streams.